Loads of anime reveals these days have the price range to tug off mind-boggling battle sequences. JuJutsu Kaisen’s epic Sukuna vs. Jogo showdown is a shining instance of pure spectacle and visible experimentation that showcases the evolution of recent anime choreography (regardless of having manufacturing points on the time). But it surely pales compared to a battle over a decade previous: Isaac Netero vs Meruem from 2011’s Hunter x Hunter. This sequence doesn’t have the manufacturing worth to tug off the identical stage of choreography, but it surely’s a marvel nonetheless, and it’s all due to using voice-over narration.
Hunter x Hunter didn’t begin to use a voice-over narration till season 6 (the Chimera Ant arc), the place a narrator would clarify stakes, battle methods, and different particulars with a third-party perspective that elevated the collection’ storytelling. It makes the arc a standout, not simply inside the collection, however in all of shonen, and all of it coalesces at its greatest throughout this transient two-episode battle.
Credit score: Madhouse/Crunchyroll
The Chimera Ant arc focuses on the evolution of ants as supremely highly effective beings and their king, the strongest of all of them, Meruem. Hunters (elite members of humanity acknowledged by the Hunter Affiliation) are dispatched to maintain this risk earlier than the ants get too highly effective and take over the world. Neturo is the 100+ year-old chairman of the Hunters Affiliation, and though we’d by no means seen him in motion up thus far, he’s the strongest Hunter alive. He’s additionally the one one who may stand an opportunity of taking out the ant king, and they also lastly meet and do battle. It begins as a grueling battle of attrition. Netero should completely anticipate Meruem’s lightning-fast counters as a result of one mistake may show deadly. Conceited but impressed, Meruem commends the previous man for matching his tempo. Refusing to be belittled, Netero summons his signature approach: a towering gold Hundred-Sort Guanyin Bodhisattva that strikes with blinding pace every time he clasps his arms in prayer. All of the whereas, composer Yoshihisa Hirano’s hauntingly lovely rating, The Final Mission, swells with a full choir, underscoring the conflict of titans and mirroring the divine presence of the determine Netero instructions. The narrator tells us that, regardless of its energy, the Bodhisattva is doing “subsequent to no harm” and “the king has no trigger for worry.”
Credit score: Madhouse/Crunchyroll
We’re additionally informed that “after a whole lot and hundreds of strikes, the King was starting to really feel the faintest hints of lifeless ache in his physique, ” a revelation that makes it clear Meruem nonetheless holds the benefit, simply earlier than he effortlessly slices off Netero’s leg. However as a substitute of faltering, Netero seals the wound immediately and pushes more durable, incomes even better respect from his opponent. What started as a battle of attrition now shifts into one thing greater: a battle to resolve whether or not ants or people are the superior species. In response to the narrator, their conflict “didn’t even final a minute,” however inside that minute, Netero’s sharpened resolve fuels an change of over a thousand blows. Reasonably than render each strike intimately, the anime conveys this flurry by means of a stunning montage of sunshine and arms, the combatants silhouetted in opposition to a cosmic backdrop and blooming flowers. The place most trendy anime would obsess over every body of choreography, Hunter x Hunter as a substitute finds magnificence in suggestion, counting on narration and imagery to seize the overwhelming scale of the battle. Then Netero loses considered one of his arms.
Credit score: Madhouse/Crunchyroll
Meruem asks Netero to say his identify, as a means of lastly acknowledging the king of ants and his form because the superior species. He believes that with out considered one of his arms, Netero is powerless. Nevertheless, it seems this was only a ploy to get Meruem to drop his guard and permit Netero to unleash his final approach: Zero Hand. The way in which the narrator describes this assault frames it as essentially the most lovely, but devastating, maneuver I’ve ever seen in an anime. It’s an assault that sees “a Buddha seem behind an enemy, gently enveloping the goal” in its arms “with an indiscriminate love” earlier than blasting its goal with all of Netoro’s aura. The narration alone sells the assault lengthy earlier than a single beam is fired. No quantity of on-screen motion may convey its affect as successfully. It captures the lethal magnificence of the blast — its sheer energy, its deadly intent, and the utter devastation it could deliver to anybody caught in its path. So when Meruem walks away from the assault almost unscathed, we all know Netero, now utterly shriveled up and exhausted, stands no likelihood in opposition to the ant king. Meruem speaks of his birthright to rule over all life, a legacy handed down by the ants earlier than him and cast by means of his personal evolution, insisting that no single human may ever hope to attain such energy alone. Ants labored collectively to result in Meruem, one thing people with their individualism may by no means accomplish. However as a result of he’s struck by Netero’s skill to transcend human limitations, he declares that people will probably be allowed to outlive, confined inside a chosen internment zone. Netero seems totally damaged — till he begins to chuckle and utter Meruem’s identify. The as soon as joyous, carefree previous man now radiates deadly intent, his gaze as murderous as his resolve. He warns that he’s not alone, and that “you perceive nothing of humanity’s infinite potential for evolution.” In that instantaneous, the narrator tells us, the king feels worry for the primary time as Netero plunges his finger into his personal coronary heart.
A flashback reveals Netero on a surgical desk, surrounded by docs, informed that if his coronary heart stops, one thing will activate. Like Meruem, the viewers realizes Netero has planted a bomb inside himself, designed to annihilate each him and the ant king. The narrator explains it’s known as a “poor man’s rose,” named for the form of its smoke cloud, a tool as soon as favored by small dictatorships. It goes off and efficiently catches them each within the explosion. Within the unique manga, Netero as a substitute says, “Don’t underestimate humanity’s infinite potential for malice.” It’s a more practical assertion, given humanity’s use and creation of bombs. It’s a testomony to their battle about ants and people. Even when ants are stronger than people, people are such that they’ll destroy all the pieces, even themselves, with the intention to retaliate for a loss or for an end result the place no person wins. Netero vs Meruem has all of it: private grudges, a conflict of philosophies, wonderful motion, and a poignant conclusion, but it surely’s the narration that propels the second past the edge of simply one other anime battle. The narration contextualizes the stakes, captures the feelings of every character from a broader perspective, and conveys a scope far past what inside dialogue alone may obtain. To me, that issues way over flashy visuals or technical feats. Hunter x Hunter is on the market to stream on Crunchyroll
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